Page 275 of The Invite
Kissing me deeply, he rasps, “I love you so much.”
“I love you more, my devil.”
Before leaving, he gives me another long look of pure longing as though it physically hurts him to leave me. “I’ll be back soon.”
As soon as the door shuts behind him, I’m off the couch and running upstairs to find the burner phone. Inside my bedroom, I stroll into the bathroom and yank open the drawer under the sink. I frown, finding it empty. I swear I hid it in her—
“You won’t find it in there, love.”
I jump at the sickly-sweet voice, conjured straight from my nightmares.
But the endearment makes me freeze and my limbs go numb. Brutal memories assault my brain. I attempt to push them back into their cage. I need to if I have a chance to make it out alive.
Except my system malfunctions. My brain screams at me to move, but my feet—they don’t move an inch. Facing her, seeing her, will make my nightmare real.
Debolina.
Or more fittingly…
“Is this any way to greetyour mother, Tyra?”
It jolts me out of the shock and I jerk my head up, meeting her eyes in the mirror. They are the exact replica of mine. The difference—hers are dead. Like staring into a black void.
I swallow when they crinkle in the corners.
The years on the run haven’t been kind to her. Once upon a time, she used to glow like a regal queen with a natural blush on her sharp cheekbones. Now, her face is dull and her cheeks are sunken like someone drilled holes into them.
Coming up to me, she takes my chin between two bony fingers and whips me around with an unbending pressure. Her touch is akin to thousands of worms crawling all over my skin, poisoning me one inch at a time.
Slamming me hard against the marble sink, she regards the contours of my face.
It’s like I’m trapped in the body of a little girl, unable to fight her back.
“Let me see how you’ve been all these years, oh deceiving daughter of mine.” Her voice is soft as a petal while her grip is punishing. “Eating well, aren’t you? While your mother has been begging for scraps.”
How is she here?
They were supposed to catch her.
Why did I let myself hope they would?
“Wondering how I am here instead of in cuffs? I can hear your mind whirring,” she taunts, checking me over from head to toe. I realize she’s searching my body for hidden weapons or if I’m wearing a wire.
How can she know about the lead?
Did someone snitch?
“Gosh! How naïve you still are, love. The lead Michael was bragging about?Iput it there. Did you think you or the FBI would be so lucky to find me sitting at a cabin and waiting to arrest me?” Her lips curl in disgust as she squeezes my jaw, trying to crush it into pieces. “When they storm in there, they’ll find no one. And while they search everywhere with their tails tucked between their legs, you and I are going to reacquaint.”
Trap.
It was all a trap and we all fell right into it.
As it all clicks into my brain and the horror etches across my face, my mother smiles triumphantly.
“No!” I heave in a rush. My knees threatening to give out.
“Then you had to go and make enemies with the wrong people.”
